Brothers Paolo and Ignazio Florio leave Calabria’s poverty-stricken Bagnara Calabra for Palermo, where they open an apothecary and quickly become wealthy. However, Paolo’s son, Vincenzo, transforms the Florio family into a bona fide business empire during the years leading up to the Unification of Italy. Driven by a burning desire to succeed, he aspires to be treated as an equal by the nobility of Palermo, a quest that requires him to marry an aristocrat. However, he falls madly in love with middle-class Giulia Portalupi and sacrifices his desires for nobility. This tasks their only son, Ignazio, with upholding the Florio name. Lions of Sicily.
